3. Introduction to Dialogue and Sequencing

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Welcome to CS First Storytelling.

Over the next eight days of this club you will get to create some exciting interesting stories using computer science.

Today you'll learn what computer science is.

You'll find out what kinds of stories you'll make in this club.

And, finally, you'll make your own program.

CS First Storytelling is a computer science club.

Computer science uses computers to make amazing projects, also called programs, that allow people to entertain, solve problems, do work, and save time.

In this one you'll learn many different ways computer science relates to things you do and see every day.

You might be surprised.

In this club you will create stories with the projects you build.

However, people use computer science to build all kinds of projects and solve many types of problems from sharing pictures across the world to dispatching a fire engine in an emergency.

Over the next eight club sessions you will be introduced to some of the incredible creations people build and problems people solve using computer science.

You will also learn how to use computer science to create your own stories and programs.

When this club ends you will have a collection of your own stories that you've made while learning computer science.

Take a look at some sample stories that you'll have a chance to build over the next eight club sessions.

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Today you will create a dialogue driven story while you learn about two important computer science principles, sequencing and testing code.

Sequencing means putting things in order.

When you write code you need to carefully decide the order in which the code will run.

Today you will learn about sequencing and testing code as you create a dialogue, or a conversation between two characters.

Good storytellers use dialogue to provide the audience with insight into the characters and plots.

Take for instance a piece of dialogue like "I didn't think you'd show up."

Well, why not, is the other character a coward, lazy, too busy?

Is this a dangerous situation?

What might the character want to avoid in that situation?

Is something bad gonna happen?

Good dialogue requires a response that moves the plot forward.

In today's club you will create a story that's driven by dialogue, meaning that you'll use a conversation to reveal important information about the plots and the characters in your story.

As an extra challenge you need to do all of this without using any questions in your dialogue.

Asking and answering questions within a story can slow it down, plus that's not really the way people talk to each other in real life.

Exercise your storytelling muscles.

You can create a riveting dialogue without using questions.

Now, take a look at an example project.

This project has two sprites who use dialogue to direct the story.

The dialogue is sequenced using say and wait blocks.

To start go to scratch.mit.edu.

This will open scratch in a new tab.

If at any time you need to get back to see us first simply click the tab at the top of your window.

Switch between Scratch and CS first.

Once on the Scratch website sign in using the username and password on your club pass.

Then, click create to start a new project.

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